Roni Strier

Client and Worker Perceptions of Poverty: Implications for Practice and Research

This article examines how social workers and clients construe their views of poverty. It presents findings of a qualitative study of worker and client perceptions of poverty done in Jerusalem. The study found many similarities in their views of poverty, but also revealed that client views of poverty causality are structural, whereas staff views rest on individual, “culture of poverty theory” approaches. The study shows the complexity of these views and exposes the situational, contextual, interpretive, and discursive nature of these constructions. The article encourages agencies to raise staff awareness regarding the structural aspects of client problems, increase the cultural and gender sensitivity training of the staff, and cultivate a critical dialog with clients as a platform to build enduring alliances.

Working Poor Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Women and Men: Between Economic Distress and Meaning Based on Faith

The present article focuses on the interface between religion, work, and poverty as reflected in 20 in-depth qualitative interviews with ultra-Orthodox working-poor women and men in Israel. Based on a social constructivist theoretical framework, findings uncover the complex role of religion in the construction of the working poor. Religion demands a set of behaviors and belief systems that hinder the individual’s ability to break out of poverty, while protecting the ultra-Orthodox working poor in providing them with an alternative framework of interpretative beliefs that enables positive and constructive social meaning, even under the difficulties of economic hardship.

The Construction of Social Class in Social Work Education: A Study of Introductory Textbooks

Social work introductory textbooks reflect myriad practical interests, pedagogical concerns, and theoretical considerations. However, they also present students with accepted views, dominant perspectives, and main discourses of knowledge. In light of this centrality, the present article examines the representation of the concept of “social class” in introductory textbooks as a way to look at the construction of the concept in social work education. Based on the content analysis study of 50 introductory textbooks, the article suggests that social work education has overlooked or even denied the relevance of social class. Class differences, as part of other categories of power such as race, ethnicity, and gender are crucial factors in explaining diversity and inequality. As social justice is one of the main premises of social work, the question of how to prepare students to deal with class issues as future practitioners seems to be very important, especially in light of increasing social class gaps.

Tracing Stigma in Long-Term Care Insurance in Israel: Stakeholders’ Views of Policy Implementation

ABSTRACT Almost all developed countries provide some answers for long-term care, but only a few countries in the world, such as Japan, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, and Israel, have implemented long-term care insurance (LTCI) based on legislation and entitlement principles. In Israel, a community-based LTCI social program has achieved multiple goals and considerably improved the life of frail older people. However, some studies show that despite the rising costs of home care and the mandatory and almost universal nature of LTCI there are still cases in which people with Alzheimers disease (AD) and other types of dementia or their relatives vacillate or even decline to make use of their rights. We examined the question of whether these patterns may reflect the presence of welfare stigma (i.e., stigmatized views of LTCI) either related to identity stigma of persons with AD or to treatment stigma, usually associated with welfare bureaucracy. Based on a qualitative design, this article uses a methodology of personal in-depth and focus group triangulation, by which the views of three groups of stakeholders are explored and compared: persons with AD, relatives, and professionals. Findings showed the presence of stigmatic self-images among persons with AD or other types of dementia and the absence of such images in relatives’ and professionals’ views of them and of LTCI. However, treatment stigma was found to be primarily associated with eligibility determination procedures. The study concludes that LTCI, even when mandated and almost universal, may also generate welfare stigma due to the ways in which it is implemented.

Fatherhood in the Context of Political Violence Los Padres de la Plaza

Grounded on a documentary film-based qualitative research methodology, the article undertakes a social constructivist theoretical analysis of the story of a group of Argentinean fathers whose children were victims of enforced disappearance. It focuses specifically on the impact of the massive use of enforced disappearance on fathers by the Military government in Argentina between 1976 and 1983. The premeditated use of this tactic gave birth to a protest movement named “Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo,” established by a group of mothers whose children were abducted. Whereas the mothers’ role in the context of this historical period of political violence was extensively documented, the question of the fathers’ role remains unclear. Based on “Padres de la Plaza: 10 Recorridos Posibles” by director Joaquin Daglio, a documentary film that portrayed the stories of ten fathers whose children were abducted, the article examines the experience of fatherhood in the context of political violence, the impact of enforced disappearance on these fathers, the role of the fathers in the Mothers’ protest movement, and the construction of fatherhood under these particular historical and personal circumstances. The article shows how fatherhood is experienced and transformed in the contexts of political violence, specifically in contexts of the institutionalized, state-sponsored violation of human and civil rights.

Working Men Views of Poverty: Ethnic Perspectives

Despite the alarming numbers of workers living in poverty in developed countries, work is still commonly seen as a way out of poverty. From a social constructivist perspective and based on qualitative research of the working poor in Israel, the article explores low-income Arab and Jewish working men’s views of poverty. It addresses research topics such as the meaning of work, the perception of the workplace, and the experience of poverty and coping strategies. In addition, the article examines the presence of ethnic differences in the social construction of in-work poverty. At the theoretical level, the article questions dominant views of work as the main exit from poverty, highlights the impact of gender and ethnicity in the construction of in-work poverty, and suggests the need for more context and gender-informed policies to respond to the complexity of the male working poor population.

Social workers' emotional labour with families in poverty: Neoliberal fatigue?

Department of Human Services, Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Poverty and Social Exclusion, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel School of Social Work, Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Poverty and Social Exclusion, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel Correspondence Einat Lavee, Department of Human Services, Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Poverty and Social Exclusion, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel. Email: elavee@univ.haifa.ac.il

The Paradoxical Fabric of Hope in Academy-Community Partnerships: Challenging Binary Constructions of Conflict-Cooperation

The global interest in University Community Partnerships (UCP’s) has made the study of these initiatives an important field of research. Studies show that the increased number of UCP’s stems from the fact that both parties see in these shared ventures an opportunity to achieve reciprocal goals. Universities perceive them as a way to show their social commitment to the community, while simultaneously expanding the scope of academic activities and goals. Communities for their part, look at these projects as ways to promote their own social agendas and prioritize critical issues. However, along with these expected mutual gains, studies have also recognized these partnerships as highly complex, often conflictive enterprises, which may generate multiple internal tensions due to competing interests and power disputes. In many cases, the complex nature of these partnerships may severely challenge the chances for their success and sustainability to the extent that studies portray the contested nature of these partnerships as dysfunctional. This chapter challenges this theoretical perspective and offers an alternative theoretical framework to re-examine the binary construction of cooperation-conflict. Using the Organizational Paradox Theory and based on a comprehensive UCP established in the University of Haifa, Israel, this chapter analyses four areas of paradox that illustrate the complexity of UCP. The first part of the chapter will present a review of current research on UCP’s and briefly introduces the Organizational Paradox theoretical framework. The second part describes the methodology of the study. Based on our case study, the third part examines four cases that exemplify paradoxes in UCP. In the discussion section, we elaborate on the contribution of Organizational Paradox Theory to the understanding of academic-community partnerships, culminating with recommendations for both research and practice.